“For Friday, the market was up only because of an afternoon rally, driven by quarter-end window-dressing,” Abbygayle Estrella, analyst at AB Capital Securities, Inc., said in a phone interview. She was referring to the strategy used by fund managers to improve the look of their portfolios by selling losing stocks and buying top performing ones.

On Thursday, the BSP kept its policy rates unchanged. However, it decided to raise the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for commercial banks by 1 percentage point to 19 percent effective April 4, indicating a bias toward gradual tightening.

“For the reserve adjustment, only [listed]banks are affected,” Estrella said.

On Thursday, the market slipped again after a modest recovery on Wednesday as Wall Street remained weak amid lingering tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the Crimea region. The PSEi fell 32.81 points or 0.52 percent to 6,315.69, while the broader all shares was down 19.59 points or 0.51 percent at 3,814.23.